Li Guang immediately understood Zhao Xian's meaning. He hadn't thought of this, so he spoke up.

“Brother Zhao is right. Perhaps the epicenter of the earthquake is hundreds of miles away, and the situation Brother Zhao described has occurred. We must go to the rescue.”

"Yes, that's what I mean too, but it's just a guess. What we need to do now is to confirm this guess."

If we passively wait for news, it will take at least two or three days, by which time it will be too late.

"Then we will send people out to investigate and find out the details of this earthquake."

“Yes, we must send people to do this as soon as possible. Hopefully, the epicenter of this earthquake is Shuixian Village, so that there won’t be any major earthquakes in other places,” Zhao Xian said.

"Brother Zhao, let's go to the military camp now." Li Guang said and stood up.

The two quickened their pace and hurried toward the military camp.

Light snow was still falling, and snow was beginning to accumulate on the ground, but this did not affect people's travel.

The two arrived at the military camp, where Gu Huai and Yao Lin were leading the soldiers in serious drills.

Li Guang immediately summoned everyone to the council hall for a meeting.

After briefly explaining the situation, Li Guang then mobilized his troops.

He arranged for eight squads to immediately depart from the military camp and head in eight different directions to find the epicenter of the earthquake, and to return immediately upon discovering any findings.

Eight teams quickly set off, traveling at breakneck speed in eight different directions to gather information about the earthquake.

This method is a bit clumsy, but it works very well.

Zhao Xian and Li Guang stayed in the military camp, waiting for news.

Before long, those who had gone to the southwest to gather information began to return with news that there had been earthquakes in the villages along that route, and the intensity of the earthquakes was increasing as they went further in.

Upon learning of this, Zhao Xian basically understood that his guess was correct, and the epicenter of the earthquake should be in the southwest direction.

The other seven teams began to return one after another. They found no problems, indicating that the epicenter was not in these directions.

People kept returning from the southwest with news that in Luoqiao Town, more than 100 miles from Shuixian Village, a large number of houses had collapsed and people had died.

However, it cannot yet be confirmed that Luoqiao Town is the epicenter of the earthquake, and the team is continuing to search further ahead.

As he had expected, Zhao Xian knew that if a strong earthquake occurred in some major towns in the southwest, there would be significant casualties.

Li Guang immediately dispatched troops to Luoqiao Town to carry out rescue operations, while Zhao Xian gathered some supplies and followed closely behind.

After the rescue teams and supplies left, Zhao Xian and Li Guang received another message: the epicenter was likely in Dezhou Prefecture, more than 300 li away from Shuixian Village.

According to reports, the situation in Dezhou Prefecture is extremely serious. Almost all the houses in the city have collapsed, and most people are buried in the rubble. Rescue efforts must be carried out immediately.

Without delay, Zhao Xian and Li Guang quickly devised a rescue plan. Li Guang personally led a team to rescue people, while Zhao Xian collected disaster relief supplies and delivered them to the disaster area.

Li Guang knew that the earthquake was centered in Dezhou, and that areas within a radius of several hundred miles had suffered varying degrees of damage, indicating that the affected area was quite large.

With this in mind, General Li Guang led all 100,000 troops from his camp to various earthquake-stricken areas to carry out rescue operations.

Zhao Xian spent a day collecting a large amount of disaster relief supplies.

These supplies mainly consist of food and clothing. Since Zhao Xian harvested a large quantity of sweet potatoes this year, he donated one million kilograms of sweet potatoes to be transported to the disaster area.

In addition, he instructed Shen Jianfeng to take out all the produced clothes, pack them up, and transport them to the disaster area.

These clothes will be very useful in this cold weather.

The disaster relief supplies were ready, but how to transport them to Dezhou was a problem for Zhao Xian.

In fact, Zhao Xian had a good idea: to put all the supplies into his storage space and then go to Dezhou himself.

Once they arrive, the relief supplies are retrieved from the storage space, thus completing the transportation of the supplies.

But if he did that, Zhao Xian's secrets would be completely exposed, and he wouldn't do such a thing.

If all these supplies were transported by vehicles, each vehicle could carry a maximum of a little over a thousand kilograms. If we were to transport a million kilograms of sweet potatoes, how many vehicles would we need?

Moreover, it's still snowing lightly, making the roads increasingly difficult to travel. If these supplies can't be delivered in time, people will starve to death.

Just as Zhao Xian was racking his brains, the village headman walked over and said:

"Your Excellency need not worry. There are merchant ships from Yingkou Town that go to Dezhou. Once these supplies are transported to Yingkou Town, the rest will be easy."

A river runs through Shuixian Village to Yingkou Town. While large boats cannot pass through this river, small boats can pass without hindrance.

This way, the supplies can be transported to Texas much faster than by truck.

Zhao Xian nodded. The village head's method had solved a big problem for him. He had been so anxious that he hadn't thought of that.

Under the arrangement of the village head, the villagers used small boats to transport all the disaster relief supplies to Yingkou Town, and then loaded them onto two merchant ships at the Yingkou Town dock.

The merchant ship soon departed, heading towards Texas.

After helping Zhao Xian with this matter, the village head did not rest. He immediately organized the villagers of Shuixian Village to donate money and supplies to help the disaster area.

At the call of the village head, the villagers of Shuixian Village began to donate money and goods. Every household in the village planted sweet potatoes. In order to help the disaster area, Zhao Xian donated one million catties of sweet potatoes.

The villagers don't have that many sweet potatoes, but donating a hundred or two hundred kilograms wouldn't be a problem.

After learning about the situation, villagers from other villages were not to be outdone. They also had sweet potatoes, so they decided to donate them.

There are also many business people in the village who generously offered their help.

In less than two days, the village head received more than three million catties of sweet potatoes and a large amount of silver.

The village head immediately organized personnel to transport these relief supplies to the disaster area.

At this moment, Zhao Xian was sitting on the merchant ship, and Zhao Cheng stood behind him, protecting his safety at all times.

During this season, the river flow is calm, and merchant ships sail quickly. In less than two days, the merchant ships arrived at the Dezhou Wharf.

The Dezhou Wharf is not far from Dezhou City. Zhao Xian was not in a hurry to unload the goods. He wanted to go to Dezhou City first.

Not far from the city, there were also some buildings that had almost all collapsed.

The tall city walls and gates of Texas City were undamaged and still stood firm. Through the city gates, one could see some of the situation inside the city.

Everywhere you look, there are collapsed houses; you can't see a single intact one.

In this area, low thatched huts have been erected everywhere, serving as temporary shelters for the disaster victims.